Friday, July 31, 2009

Ohio is a PianoOhio has 88 counties. A piano has 88 keys. So obviously Ohio is a piano!

Well, it is on this amazing Google Maps for Flash API mashup. Cartogrammar has mapped each county to Ohio to a particular piano key depending on various data attributes. This means that you can play Ohio on this Google Map just as you would on a piano, except here you press the counties rather than tinkle the ivory.

The map has 'The Entertainer' and 'Beethoven's 5th' already programmed, so if you never learnt to play the Ohiophone you can just press play and sit back and listen. Alternatively, if you have always wondered what Google Driving Directions would sound like if each county you passed through played a different note (and come on who hasn't always wondered that), you can select a route from any county to any other county and listen to the route.

Hat's off to Andy Woodruff, the mad genius behind this Google Maps Mashup. I can't wait for the encore.

The map gives users the ability to visualise data collected since 1990. It is possible to select any combination of emission categories to view on the map and to choose to view any year's data from 1990.

Anyone interested in Google Maps mashups is probably going to love this new Geospatial Revolution Project from Penn State Public Broadcasting. I've pushed this post back to the top of Google Maps Mania because the Project have updated the preview video (embedded below).

The Geospatial Revolution Project is an initiative to show how the world of digital mapping is changing the way we think, behave, and interact. The project will revolve around eight video episodes, each telling an intriguing geospatial story. The episodes will culminate in a 60-minute documentary.

The preview video is shown below:

The topics of the videos will include:

A historical timeline of mapping, from ancient to modern times

Digital mapping’s role in national issues such as defense, geointelligence, homeland security, politics and elections, law enforcement, public safety, and disaster management

The effect of geospatial technologies on world issues such as commerce, communications, human rights monitoring, energy policy, and climate change

Virtual VigilTwo US journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV, are currently being detained in North Korea. The London Times say that the pair face the "possibility of a show trial and ten years in a notoriously harsh North Korean prison camp."

Mike Knapp, a former Google employee turned entrepreneur has created this Google Maps mashup so that you can show your support for the two journalists. The mashup allows you to join a virtual vigil for the release of Laura and Euna. The vigil is held over Pyongyang, where the pair are being detained, on Google Maps.

To add your support you just need to log in with a Google account, choose an avatar and leave a message of support. Your message will then be added to the other messages of support on the satellite image of Pyongyang on this Google Map.

Fox News Not Using Google MapsFox News have decided not to use Google Maps in their news coverage. Instead they have decided to redraw the world, replacing Iraq with Egypt. Fox say that they will be relocating the pyramids to Baghdad early next week.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Google Maps have today added the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to transit directions in Boston. Google Transit can now show public transportation directions using the MBTA for Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Quincy, Somerville, and the surrounding areas.

gheatgheat is an open source application to create heatmap layers for the Google Maps API.

A number of websites have already used gheat to create some interesting heat maps:

The Anglican Church in North AmericaThe Anglican Church in North America is using gheat on their homepage to show Anglican parishes in the USA. From the heat map it seems that Anglicanism is more of an east coast than west coast thing.

Australian Honeypot ProjectThe Australian Honeypot Project is using gheat to show the locations of computers that are attacking (spamming) the Australian SensorNET. The heat map seems to identify Germany as a particular hot spot for spammers.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

RealPlacesRealPlaces is a web site where anyone can create their own Street View like mapping experience. With RealPlaces it is possible to create and share panoramic walk-throughs for any location in the world.

Unlike Street View RealPlaces works from still images, not from VR panoramas. The walk-throughs that are created are therefore sort of like low-tech versions of Street View. Users take a number of photographs at a given point to capture a 360 degree view and the photographs are then stitched together and placed on a Google Map. Once a number of points are created around one area RealPlaces can then create a walk-through for the location.

This low-tech approach has the huge advantage that anyone with a camera can create a walk-through and post it on RealPlaces. The site's stated goal is to "create a first-person navigable version of the real world." Because the walk-throughs are so easy to create RealPlaces has every chance of achieving this aim.

TwittoriTwittori is another Twitter and Google Maps mashup. Using Twittori it is possible to Tweet about a location. The message will appear in your Twitter stream with a short link to the location on the Twittori Google Map mashup.

Using Twittori it is also possible to follow places as you would a person on Twitter. You will then receive updates about messages from other visitors to this place. Twittoria is also available as an application for the iPhone. In Japan the Twittori iPhone App is currently number four on the top free social apps download list.

TepiloTepilo is a UK website that allows anyone to take independent control of buying and selling their home. The site explains the whole process of selling a house so that you don't need to sign up with a professional real estate agent. What is more you can upload your property and advertise your property for sale on Tepilo for free.

Teplio uses Google Maps as the means for house hunters to search the listed properties on the website. To find properties users simply add their postcode or address and results are returned on a Google Map.

The map includes two slider bars that allow the user to define the price range that they wish to search within and how a big a radius they want to search from a given location. Beneath the sliders there are a number of options to further refine your search by property type, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, outside spaces and gardens.

TwappeningTwappening is a service that helps arrange Tweetups, local meetings for Twitter users.

The service lets users automatically Tweet invitations and track conversations about the meet-up in real time. If you are going to have a meet-up you, of course, need a location to meet and you need to be able to show everyone attending where the location is.

Twappening uses the Google Maps API to show the location of each Tweetup.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Immersive MediaImmersive Media create interactive panoramas in video (think Street View with moving images). Or even better just check out the example below,

Once the video has finished buffering drag your mouse around the image to pan the view whilst the video is playing, then pick your jaw back up from your desk.

Immersive video have created a Data Coverage Map of some of their available videos. The map traces the routes that the camera takes in each video and the videos are embedded directly within the Google Map.

Apollo 11 Moon LanderPaul van Dinther, author of the excellent Ships games has turned his attention to the new Moon in Google Earth and produced an excellent Lunar Landing game.

This game, for the Google Earth Browser plugin, involves having to land the Apollo 11 Eagle lander, whilst controlling your fuel and rate of speed. The Google Earth Blog created this video of a successful landing,

One of the big problems with games for the Google Earth plugin, is the lack of automatic collision detection. Therefore in driving games the cars are able to drive straight through buildings. One thing Google Earth does have though is terrain and Paul has used this to enable collision detection for his Lunar Lander.

Tweet SentimentsTweetSentiments.com provides a snapshot view of the world's mood via a heat map from an analysis of Tweets. The site uses Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning technologies to analyse Tweets from around the world and then presents the results on a Google Map.

As well as a heat map overlay the map also geo-tags individual Tweets. Looking at these messages you can see that the analysis often takes individual words out of context. For example, 'war' seems to always be given a negative score even if someone Tweets 'war' in a message about playing a computer game.

However these individual errors should be negligible if the system is built on a large enough dataset. Iraq and Afghanistan seem to score quite badly on the heat map, which seems to suggest a degree of accuracy; although you might expect Iran and Zimbabwe to not be quite as content as the map shows.

And, in case you were wondering, Mongolia seems to be the happiest place on Earth. At least for today._____________

Monday, July 27, 2009

Barackobama.com is using Google Maps extensively this week to drum up support for Health Care Reform. The site has a Google Map showing Week of Action events across the USA and also a Google Map showing Tweets people have sent to their senator in support of the reforms.

Tweet Your SenatorTweet Your Senator allows Twitter users to Tweet their senator a message in support of the Health Care Reform. Users simply enter their zip code and then their Twitter status box is auto-completed with a message for their senator.

The page uses a Google Map which animates in real-time through the latest messages sent to senators across the USA in support of the reform.Find an EventAll this week events are taking place across the USA in support of President Obama's Health Care Reform. This Google Maps mashup can tell you the events closest to you.

To find events near you just enter your zip code and the events are returned on a Google Map. The events are also listed under the map , where they can be sorted by date or by distance.

What ever you think of Barack Obama's politics he certainly knows how to use technology to organise grass roots support for his campaigns.

Pearson SISThe School Systems group of Pearson have integrated Google Maps into their latest SIS products.

Using Google Maps directly within an SIS will help schools with their enrolment process, easing the input of student address data. Schools can then easily check that students' addresses fall within school and district boundaries.

BikehikeBikehike uses Google Maps to help users create biking and hiking routes. The site will work anywhere in the world but because the site can use Google Maps alongside UK Ordnance Survey maps it works particularly well in the United Kingdom.

Creating a route is very easy and involves just placing a series of map markers along your chosen route. If you want to follow roads then you can select the 'follow road' option and your route will snap to the nearest roads. In the UK, however, you can also plot your route on an Ordnance Survey map, which means you can trace a route on the byways, bridleways and public footpaths that Google Maps doesn't show.

When you have completed tracing your route Bikehike will calculate the elevation profile of your route. The elevation profile is fully interactive with the Google Map, so if you click on the elevation graph you can see the corresponding route point on the map. It is also possible to toggle between an elevation and gradient view.

Routes that you create can be saved and shared with others. You can also search the site for routes created by others. Routes can be uploaded and downloaded from GPS units (GPX, TCX and TRL formats) or to a Garmin GPS unit using the Garmin Communicator plugin.

Cenove MapyCzech real estate company, Bezrealitky.cz, have produced this Google Maps mashup to show current real estate prices in the Czech Republic. The site uses a heat map to show the relative prices of properties at 1m².

The map can be used to find the most desirable (or at least the most costly) locations to live or help you find the cheapest areas to buy. As you might imagine property prices are highest in the centre of Prague but the map also shows which suburbs have the most expensive and cheapest properties.

Ukazky StavebUkazky Staveb are builders of timber homes in the Czech Republic. The company have produced this Google Map mashup to showcase the properties that they have built.

The properties on the map are divided into three categories, classic, modern and reconstruction. It is possible to select which category of property you wish to view via the tick boxed under the map.

Google Maps in Spain (maps.google.es) have teamed up with lanetro.com to produce a Google My Map of the most interesting events happening in Spain this summer.

The listed events include festivals, dance performances and rock and jazz concerts. It is possible to search for any of these events by location and date. Using the Google Maps search feature with the 'businesses' option means you can also find hotels and restaurants that are near to any of the events.

Thanks to lanetro.com the information windows for each of the events contains details, pictures and links to more information.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

GoBYOIn these cash strapped times one of the best ways to save money when eating out is to choose a Bring Your Own restaurant. GoBYO has a comprehensive database of restaurants that allow you to bring your own bottle of wine.

It is possible to search the GoBYO listings by restaurant name or search within a selected distance from a particular address. It is also possible to search by type of cuisine. Each restaurant displays a button for 'More Info, Maps & Reviews'.

The map view uses Google Maps to display the location of the restaurant and to show the number of stars the restaurant has based on Yelp reviews. Details of the restaurant, including any corkage fees and price range of the restaurant, are given in the map sidebar.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

geofollowGeofollow is a tool for finding Twitter users in a particular location. It is possible to search the directory of Twitter users by city, state, country, tag, name or by Twitter username.

If you search for users in a particular location geofollow uses Google Maps to show the location of Twitterers in that area. The same Twitter users are all also listed above the map and each user has their own big yellow 'follow' button.

GeoChirpGeoChirp helps you search tweets for keywords in a particular location. To set the location you just click on the Google Map and adjust the radius of the search area with the slider bar below the map. To search for a keyword within that area just enter the term into the search box.

The results are displayed below the map. Next to your results GeoChirp displays the top Twitter users in that area.

KanGarimIsraeli property search website KanGarim uses Google Maps to show the latest properties for sale and rent in the country.

KanGarim crawls the most popular property websites in Israel to ensure that they display only the latest property listings on the map. The map displays rental properties that have been advertised in the last four days and properties for sale that have been advertised in the last week.

At the moment KanGarim only displays a satellite view. This means that the user has to click on the map markers to find the address of the property. The site explains the lack of a street map view by saying that Google doesn't provide this service for Israel. However a street map view for Israel has been available since September of last year, so hopefully the site will get around to adding this option soon.

Friday, July 24, 2009

When Google Maps released the new Street View navigation tools back in early June, with tongue firmly in cheek, I used the headline 'Street View Goes Photosynth' to introduce the new features. Well today Street View took another step closer to becoming a 'Photosynth' type experience.

In effect Google Maps has today married the 'user-contributed photos' option in Street View with the new navigation tools to create something very similar to navigating in Photosynth.

Check out the video below to see what I mean:

Since their introduction I've really liked the new navigation tools in Street View. Now I like them even more! To demonstrate my love I've put together a quick hacked version of a Street View with user photos of the Eiffel Tower (may not work in Internet Explorer).

Australian Weather MapThere is something strangely exciting about watching an animation of current precipitation over the satellite view of Uluru or the Sydney Opera House. Thanks to this Weather Chaser Google Maps mashup you can now view Doppler radar animation loops for the whole of Australia.

The map also shows the current wind direction and wind strength for the whole of the country. Clicking on any of the wind observation map markers opens an information window displaying the temperature and rainfall at that location.

TicketStumblerTicketStumbler is a secondary ticket market search engine and comparison website that helps you find the best ticket price for your favourite events. The site uses the Google Maps API and the Google Local Search API to show a map of the venue and nearby places to eat and drink.

The use of Google Local Search with Google Maps on this site is pretty neat. Links to Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Bars, Gas Stations and Parking are listed next to the map. So, for the most likely searches around venues, users don't even have to bother typing their request into a search box. They just have to click on a link and the results are shown directly on the Google Map.

Nude in San FranciscoNude in San Francisco is a website of exhibitionists who parade around the city naked whilst having their photo taken. The resulting photographs are then added to this Google Map. As you can imagine this map is definitely not safe for work.

Favorite Places MarkersI love the map markers designed for the new Google Favorite Places map. Here's a little collection of some of the best.

8 Improbable Street View ShotsI'm pretty sure this one has featured on Google Maps Mania before but it is so good it deserves another airing. The Uphaa blog have Photoshopped eight imaginary Street View shots, mostly with a Sci-Fi theme.Google Street View Finds the Bat CaveOur friends over at Google Sightseeing have finally managed to track down the Bat Cave after hours of triangulating the Bat signal. Unfortunately The Joker has now refused to pay out the promised bounty.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Google have today announced the release of Google Latitude for the iPhone and iPod touch, available in the Safari browser.

To add Google Latitude visit google.com/latitude from your iPhone's browser. You can add a bookmark by opening Latitude in Safari and tapping the + icon > Add to Home Screen > Add.

Using Latitude in your iPhone lets you see the location of your friends on a Google Map. If you don't want to give too much away you can modify your privacy settings and control how your location is shared and with whom.

When you run the application in the foreground of your phone your location is continuously updated.

The Google Geo Developers Blog is featuring a Google Earth plugin version of the amazing Apollo 11 tour, created by Sean Askay for the launch of Google Moon on Monday. To view the tour you will need to have installed the Google Earth plugin on your computer (or you could watch the video of it below).

Google Maps for Mobile 3.2 now allows users to view a number of different layers, including traffic, local search results, Latitude friend locations and Wikipedia. You can also view your own My Maps content as a layer.

Multiple layers can be viewed on the map at the same. Search results have also been improved. Maps for Mobile now displays many more search results, shown as small red dots on the map.

USC MapsThe University of Southern California has created a map of its campus using the Google Maps API. The map uses an image overlay to present an isometric view of the campus buildings.

It is possible to search for buildings and locations on the campus in the map sidebar. The buildings are organised into categories of Dining, Galleries / Auditoria, Patient Care, Libraries, Residential, Athletics, Parks and Plazas.

Each building on the campus also comes with its own information window, that explains a little about the building and its history. The information window also contains a link to the building web page on the University's web site.

Street TravellerStreet Traveller is a blog about famous and important tourist destinations around the world. Each post looks at a different locations and mashes-up Google Maps Street View with Flickr photographs, YouTube videos and Wikipedia articles.

The Street View option for each location has a neat four-way view. Panning the larger Street View image also pans three smaller Street Views of the same location, which show views 90 degrees apart. In effect this means you can look north, east, south and west at the same time.

Space 1999, Moonbase AlphaEarlier today the Google Earth Blog reported about Gerardo Paz's amazing 3D model of Moon Base Alpha from the Sci-Fi television series Space 1999. You can view the model and a tour created by Gerardo by viewing this kml in Google Earth.

Søren Johannessen has now created a web page where you can view the tour in the Google Earth plugin. Here's a little screencast:

Design With An AccentNews Zealand web designer Stas Kulesh has used the Google Maps API to produce a portfolio of his work.

The portfolio map replaces the Google Map tiles with custom map tiles showing Stas' web designs. The result is an interactive portfolio that can be used to scan and zoom in on examples of Stas' web designs and photography.

Stas has has also produced a menu, with links that open information windows above some of the designs. Using information windows means that he is able to give more details about particular designs.Previously Featured on Google Maps Mania

Academie Arnhem Portfolio MapThe Academie Arnheim have used custom map tiles with the Google Maps API to present the work of the final examination candidates of The ArtEZ Academy of Arnhem. The academie has replaced the Google Map tiles with custom tiles created from images of the students' work. The images represent the artistic work of the students after four years of studying at the acadamie and mark the start of their career as artists, designers or teachers of visual arts and design.

It is possible to use the Google Maps interface to pan around the different art works and to zoom in for a closer work at individual pieces. The acadamie has also done some impressive programming (with jquery I think) to overlay text links on each of the student's work. Clicking on any of the links loads information, directly onto the map, about the art work.

Kalle HagmanGraphic designer Kalle Hagman has created a Google Map of his art work. He has replaced the Google Map tiles with a collage of his own graphic designs to create an interactive portfolio.

When the page first loads the map is zoomed in on an image of Kalle's business card. The user can then use the Google Maps navigation tools to zoom in and examine in close up any of Kalle's featured work.

You can use CASA's Image Cutter or the Automatic Tile Cutter to create your own collages with Google Maps. You could also add map markers to a collage. For example Kalle could have included map markers on his collage that when opened included details about the artwork featured.

Twitter MapMibazaar's latest map allows you to embed your very own Twitter map in your website or blog. This Google Maps mashup takes your latest Twitter status and maps it based on your Twitter profile location.

The more detailed your profile location is, the higher the zoom level. The maps work particularly well with the iPhone generated profile location, which allows you to update your Twitter profile location on the fly.

Toronto Garbage Drop Off MapIn Toronto municipal workers have been striking for a month, which has meant that residents' trash has not been being collected. In response the city has set up temporary dump sites for residential and commercial garbage.

CBC.ca have produced a Google Maps mashup to show the location of the temporary and permanent dump sites. The map was produced using the Map Channels map creation tool, a service that lets you embed a custom map into your website or blog without the need for coding.

Coincidently, yesterday I happened to meet with the creator of Map Channels and learnt of a new exciting mapping project in development. More news of which I hope to be able to bring you soon ...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Google are holding a vote in the Netherlands to determine which locations the Google Street View trike should visit this summer. Google have teamed with Netherlands VVV (the Dutch tourist board) to produce a shortlist of 18 locations:

NeedVisionNeedVision is a Google Map mashup of loans made by micro-lending site Kiva.

Kiva is a person-to-person micro-lending website helping individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Individuals and groups can make a loan and help a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), lenders receive email journal updates and track repayments.

Markers on the map contain a brief description, photograph and a link to the details of the loan on the Kiva website.

Weekend TreasureWeekend Treasure lists thousands of garage and yard sales on a Google Maps mashup. The site maps sales from dozens of online sources, including newspapers and Craigslist. The site picks up sales with defined dates, so out-dated sales are never listed.

It is possible to search the map for a nearby sale by zip code or address. The information window for each sale includes the date and address of the sale and a link to further details.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Today's big news from Google is that the moon has been added to Google Earth. For news of the launch you should check out the Google Earth Blog. Frank Taylor is at the launch event and I'm sure he will be posting about all the features of this latest addition to Google Earth.

You can also check out the Google Earth Blog's Twitter feed, which Frank is using to comment live on the launch in Washington.

Google Moon LandingsGoogle Moon has also been added to the Google Earth plugin, which means it is possible to view Google Moon in your browser. I've created a quick example of the Apollo Moon landings sites using the plugin. The example includes YouTube videos of the moon landings.

One of the great features of Google Earth and the Google Earth browser plugin is the ability to add tours. Here is a very brief tour of the Apollo 15 Landing Site. The tour is very short and I haven't added any narration or a soundtrack. However, it does show some of the possibilities of creating tours with the new Google Moon option.

Met Office Invent - UK Weather MapBack in May the UK Met Office released an experimental Google Maps mashup of UK weather. The map shows rainfall, cloud cover and air pressure over the UK for the next 48 hours. Here's a video showing an animation of forecasted rainfall:

The map has now been improved with some added layers. The new layers include two temperature options, one showing a heat map (actually showing heat) of the UK and the other showing the temperature in centigrade at various locations around the UK.

The 'weather' layer shows the usual weather map view, with icons for sun, rain, cloud etc. The 'wind' layer shows wind speed and directions and the 'warnings' layer shows the Met Office's current severe weather warnings for the UK.

The new additions to the map make this the best Google Maps mashup to view the weather in the UK and has led Mapperz to ask if it is "the best UK Google Maps API mashup ever?"

Expert AfricaTour operator Expert Africa have a large number of Google Maps mashups for the countries, areas, safari camps and lodges in Africa that they send their customers to. Here are a couple of examples:

The maps allow customers to view close up satellite images of the camps and lodges and view details of nearby towns. The map markers for each of the camps and lodges include pictures and a brief description of the camp. Each marker also contains a link to a detailed description of the camp or lodge.

Expert Africa have just added a new feature to the maps allowing anyone to add any of the maps to their own website.

Cake Delivery MapPink Cake Box, based in Denville NJ, are often asked by potential clients where they deliver to. To help customers find the answer to this question they have developed a Google Map showing several of the different venues that they have delivered cakes to in the past.

The Pink Cake Box think that Google Maps is such a good vehicle for displaying a business' product that they have also published a tutorial. The tutorial explains how they created a WordPress plugin that automatically pulls data from their existing blog posts.

The plugin allows the Pink Cake Box to add a latitude/longitude and venue to a post. The plugin then automatically extracts additional information from the post and displays it on the Pink Cake Box's Cake Delivery Map. The plugin also has an added functionality to create links directly to a specific item on the map. So a link in a blog post can take readers directly to that entry on Google Maps.